The Mirror of the Mind
by PsychoLeopard
Summary: "The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart." -St. Jerome Unrelated Avengers one-shots, mostly character studies. Introspective, minimal dialogue, possible angst, no pairings at present. Rating for language. Tony is first. Clint and Natasha added.
1. Ironman: without the suit

_Just can't get the Avengers out of my head..._

_Disclaimer: None of this is mine. It all belongs to Stan Lee, Marvel, etc, and I'm making no money. First two lines are direct quotes from the movie._

* * *

"Big man in a metal suit. Take away the suit, what are you?"

"A genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist."

It's a true answer, as far as it goes.

Tony Stark is undeniably a genius, way ahead of the bell curve. He graduated MIT with his first degree at a younger age than most kids enter it. He tinkers and perfects and creates at a level that leaves most scientists in awe. He actually synthesized a new element with a jury-rigged particle accelerator in a basement lab. Genius is an understatement.

It is that genius that permitted him to put together a compact energy source and a mechanical suit of armor out of salvaged parts while being held hostage in a cave in the desert. Maybe it was even that genius that drove him to try it, knowing there had to be a way out, a way to outsmart his captors.

He may have inherited his father's company, but he made it grow. His designs sold for millions of dollars, his charisma brought in shareholders and investors. He earned the title of billionaire, even if it wasn't entirely self-made.

Those billions allow him to upgrade his suit whenever he likes, to purchase the materials and install prototype features that would cost upwards of half a million dollars without fretting.

Playboy, well, that's hardly a secret. Tabloids and gossip columns love to talk about his latest scandal, and he rarely bothers to even learn the name of the women he has Jarvis kick out of bed in the morning. He can't remember the last time he had an actual relationship. When he was seventeen, maybe.

The only times he doesn't flirt with anything vaguely female are when he's in his workshop, or in his suit.

Philanthropist might be the title of which he is most proud. He didn't always used to be one: quite the opposite. 'Merchant of Death,' and all of that nonsense. He didn't know where his weapons were ending up and if he had known, he might not have cared, before one blew up in his face. But after his ordeal, he made a very unpopular decision, for the betterment of the world, and he _stuck to it_. Even in the face of public opinion and private betrayal, he kept his word. No more manufacturing weapons that might end up being used against the US or its allies.

Saving the world from villains in his suit is a little flashier, a little more active. It makes his atonement easier to measure. But the suit doesn't make him a philanthropist.

So it's a true answer, but it's not the real answer.

The answer the great Captain America is looking for is 'nothing,' 'weak,' 'nobody.' He is making the same mistake SHIELD made when they said "Ironman yes, Tony Stark no." He is differentiating between the hero in the metal suit and the mind that made it.

Without the mind, there is no suit. Without the suit, there is still the mind, hands, the will to make another. Try to take away all Tony's suits, lock them up, and given a day or two he will have them replaced, probably with an upgraded model.

Take Tony out of the suit, and you just have a lump of expensive metal. It can't do anything without him. No one else can use the suit like he can, with the understanding of its capabilities and trajectories and, yes, weaknesses. And that's not even considering the need to find a power-source, because every suit-but one, a prototype and a gift for a friend, which was hijacked and used against him—that Tony makes runs off the arc-reactor in his chest. That is a power source no one else has, because it is the product of his desperate bid to survive, and he made a virtue out of necessity.

It's not the suit that lets Tony do amazing things, it's his arc reactor and the brain that conceived it.

The suit is just armor, just a bonus, just a symbol. It's like Captain America's shield, really. It can be used to defend and attack and it's iconic. It lets Tony take hits his body couldn't stand, it lets him carry and fire more ammunition than a tank, it lifts spirits and brings hope. The latter he can do without the suit, the former he cannot.

Without the suit, Tony Stark would still be a hero.

But without the suit, Tony Stark _is_ human.


	2. Hawkeye: compromised

_Very short. Not mine._

* * *

_"Do you know what it's like to be unmade?"_

Compromised.

Fucking compromised.

Years, decades of perfect shooting, perfect loyalty, compromised.

A bird of prey tamed to the wrong hand. Following the wrong orders.

Untrustworthy.

An arrow, stolen from the quiver, with its feathers torn off and shaft bent. It won't fly true, unless you know how to handle it.

He always hits his target.

Well, he used to.

He's back in the quiver now, but he's still damaged. Bent. Unreliable. There's no knowing hand to make him fly straight.


	3. Natalia, Natalie, Natasha

_Author's note: I only know Nat from the movies and __fan fiction, so take her characterization with a grain of salt._

_Disclaimer: Still not mine. Beginning quote comes from Ironman II_

* * *

_"You're a triple impostor, I've never seen anything like it. Is there anything real about you?"_

It isn't the assassin thing that makes Natasha hard to trust. After all, they all have shadows in their pasts, things they've done that they aren't proud of. And—excepting possibly the Captain, who was sanctioned by the government to bathe his hands in blood—they've all committed murder. It's not even the thighs of death or the surprise needles, because, hello, green rage monster and indestructible lightning-conducting hammer. It's not her methods that are the problem.

No, what makes Natasha hard to trust is the ultimate poker face, the Oscar-worthy acting she engages in 24-7. She was named the Black Widow because she could convince a man she was desperately in love with him, and he would remain convinced as she snapped his neck. Her favorite gambit was getting captured and acting the terrified damsel as she gathered intel from every question, expression, and twitch on the part of her interrogators. She even had Loki convinced he had her number as she eked out his motives.

Her emotions, her _real_ motives, are private, buried. She does not share her thoughts just to share them, there is no 'girl talk.' Whenever she speaks truth, it is calculated for effect. Just like her lies. Her smile, her laugh, her tears...every reaction a mere gesture in a game of high-stakes charades, meant to evoke a certain response. She dons her personality as she chooses her wardrobe, her metaphorical armor and weapons.

They can't be sure she'll have their back against anything. They can't be sure she can handle any situation, because they don't know her weaknesses. They've all got things they can't handle, but they don't know what might break her, what might make her turn on them. What they mean to her, and when their use might run out.

She is a black box, and the engineer and scientist can't trust that. She is a liar, and the forthright warriors can't trust that. She is a ghost, a shadow, a mirror reflecting whatever they expect to see.

Ghosts aren't real, shadows can't be touched, and mirrors are prone to shattering.

They can't take that risk.


End file.
